Not Exactly A Book Review: Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey by David Horowitz

I used to believe that Timothy Leary lived the most amazing life ever lived, with or without copious amounts of LSD. Not the most noble or most honorable life but amazing in a strange and sometimes tragic way. He was a Harvard professor on the ground floor of psychology before the field lost its mystique. He butted heads with luminaries and then found himself mingling with artists, avant garde types, blue bloods and socialites. His life is marked by sudden twists and turns that finds him escaping prison with the aid of the Weather Underground, fleeing to Algeria where he is mistreated by Eldridge Cleaver. Later, he is apprehended and thrown into a cell next to Charles Manson. Ultimately Leary reinvents himself as a Hollywood party icon, a human prop who lends cool cred to the up and coming host. A beautiful person who could be rented for the evening.

David Horowitz's life is every bit as strange as Leary's. Horowitz is a red diaper baby who would lose faith in Leftism in his middle years and would ultimately become a convert to Conservatism. I became interested in American Communism after reading Paul Kengor's "The Communist", a biography of Barack Obama's mysterious mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. What amazed me is how prevalent and widespread and well-hidden Communists were in America. It's as if Joe McCarthy was right about everything and this country owes him a posthumous apology. The bogeyman was real after all.

Under any circumstances, the appeal of Marxism will be puzzling to me. Years ago, I attempted to read "Das Kapital." It was like swimming in cement. Give me any TOS, any credit card company privacy statement, any policy manual, even "Dianetics." I literally could not read Marx. Years later I still marvel that Marxism is pornography for some people. Go figure.

If you can imagine "The Americans" minus the action scenes you have some idea what Horowitz's family life was like. Whereas the Jennings live their lives in relative solitude, the Horowitzs are surrounded by like-minded people. Everyone is carrying water for The Communist Workers in one capacity or another. They move into a neighborhood in New York City that was structurally engineered to promote communal living. Soon fences are constructed and shades are drawn. The residents face moral dilemmas such as the private ownership of real estate and the profits from selling property that has increased in value.

For all of their silliness, the Horowitzs are a family of intellectuals. Young David is schooled in the classics and exposed to the great minds of history and his quality education is reflected in his writing. I have read science fiction where seven-digit creatures conquer earth and novels where simulacra become indistinguishable from flesh and blood people and none of those stories are as strange to me as the hyper-cerebral Jewish intellectual Communists who invaded America.

I can understand a heated family political discussion but I cannot imagine one that pits the defenders of the Soviet Union against the fans of the more genuinely Marxist Hungarian Communists. I can understand being philosophically opposed to all capital punishment but I cannot for the life of me understand the shedding of tears for Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. The Horowitzs and their friends are the most foreign people I have ever encountered.

The sins of USSR and Joseph Stalin are ignored by the loyalists. Then Kruschev releases a damning report on Papa Joe in 1956 outlining his numerous atrocities against his own people. Horowitz says that some American Communists actually committed suicide after the release of the broadside.

Lefties have a habit of changing their labels and verbiage without altering their core values. Marxists become Communists. Communists become Socialists. Socialists become Liberals. Liberals become Progressives, ad infinitum. From early adulthood till middle age, Horowitz devoted himself to the rise of The New Left.

Horowitz marries and fathers four children. Their family is like every other family except for the parents' commitment to the umpteenth repackaging of a bad idea. David and Elissa worry about the corrupting influence of popular culture on their progeny. The eldest son wants to skip out on a Black Panther funeral to watch the Oakland A's on TV. He is forced to mourn but sneaks a transistor radio to the proceedings.

As a prince of Leftism, Horowitz meets with big shots and assorted legends. R. D. Laing, Bertrand Russell, Sarte, the SDS, The Weather Underground, The Black Panthers, The SLA and a boatload of Hollywood movers and shakers. There is an amusing meeting between Joan Baez and Bertrand Russell where neither party knew exactly who the other person was but both were aware that they were meeting fellow icons.

Horowitz pulls no punches with his old friends and comrades. If you are of the opinion that Tom Hayden was the sleaziest human being of the twentieth century, this book will not change your viewpoint. There are more than bad ideas at play here. There are bad people as well.

It would be the Oakland Black Panthers and their loyal apologists who would challenge Horowitz to check his premises. A female bookkeeper is murdered and the trail leads back to the Panthers. He might be a slow learner but the author starts to see that Huey Newton and company are not revolutionaries, they are thugs. More disconcerting is the callous manner in which his Leftist friends dismiss the mounting atrocities.

Aggravated rape, extortion, probably at least a dozen murders; Huey Newton was nothing if not versatile. He consumed gargantuan quantities of cocaine. He was also shrewd. He preferred a white liberal jury because those dupes bought into his public persona whereas a black jury might not be so easily fooled. Whatever else can be said about Newton, he was the impetus for Horowitz to finally jettison his silliest ideas.

For my interest, Horowitz's childhood and early adulthood are more intriguing than his eventual conversion but the author's chaotic personal life keeps the narrative flowing. Horowitz teams up with Peter Collier to write a series of books on famous American families. The first of such is "The Rockefellers."

Horowitz interviews Abby Rockefeller and they have an affair that eventually leads to the break-up of the author's first marriage. Pain and gloom. Gloom and pain. Marriages numbered two and three don't work out at all. Wisdom and folly arrive in tandem. It is a mark of a good writer to discuss one's misery without falling into self-pity. I would say Horowitz does that pretty well.

Horowitz writes with a brilliance that only comes with experience. The Becks and Levins and Coulters might have insight into the ways of the Left, but not like someone who was born and raised at the epicenter. I cannot recommend "Radical Son" highly enough. On Amazon's scale of 1 to 5, I give it a 10.

Trump To Address 9000 in Phoenix?

Six months before the primaries Donald Trump is speaking before 9000 people?

The GOP Establishment should start taking this guy seriously. So too, Tea Partiers, Conservatives and yes, Democrats.

My position is simple: Trump is a faux conservative on every issue except immigration. We do not agree as to the remedy for economic woes. He wants to stop the Chinese from "manipulating" (read: devalue) their currency. I want to encourage the leaders of all but the US to manipulate their currencies. I favor a strong dollar but Trump sees merit in a weaker dollar. Trump is also a bit of a protectionist and I am a fan of cheap foreign goods.

Concerning likability I used to think of Trump as a chronic publicity seeker. I never saw one minute of "The Apprentice" and I was in a room once when someone was watching "Celebrity Apprentice." My only favorable association was when he was a guest on Howard Stern's radio show. He surprised me at how spontaneous he was on the radio because in pictures he looks stuffy. He was funny too. Great radio days...But all in all I can't say that I liked Trump.

What I love about Trump is that he is a fighter and yes, a leader. I am so sick of all the wusses in the GOP who won't stand up for anyone or anything. The last fighter the GOP had was Sarah Palin. Since Palin, the GOP has rolled countless doormats off its assembly line. I for one cannot bear another Mitt McCain reaching across the aisle.

Trump has internalized that distinctive New York moxie. You push him, he pushes back. You ask him a stupid question and he will highlight YOUR stupidity. I am willing to sacrifice some ideology for a leader who is more like Netanyahu (or even Putin) than the pathetic Jebs and Mitches and Boehners, to say nothing of the pansy we have in the White House.

America is hungry for a fighter. For that reason, I am not dismissing Donald Trump.

If You Follow MSM, You Missed A Bombshell: Lerner, Holder DOJ, FBI Conspired Against Obama Opponents

JULY 07, 2015

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch today released new Department of Justice (DOJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) documents that include an official “DOJ Recap” report detailing an October 2010 meeting between Lois Lerner, DOJ officials and the FBI to plan for the possible criminal prosecution of targeted nonprofit organizations for alleged illegal political activity.
The newly obtained records also reveal that the Obama DOJ wanted IRS employees who were going to testify to Congress to turn over documents to the DOJ before giving them to Congress. Records also detail how the Obama IRS gave the FBI 21 computer disks, containing 1.25 million pages of confidential IRS returns from 113,000 nonprofit social 501(c)(4) welfare groups  – or nearly every 501(c)(4) in the United States – as part of its prosecution effort. According to a letter from then-House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, “This revelation likely means that the IRS – including possibly Lois Lerner – violated federal tax law by transmitting this information to the Justice Department.”

See rest of story here.

Not Exactly A Book Review: "The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas"

I have had a hard time writing this non-review. Even though I enjoyed Jonah Goldberg's "The Tyranny of Cliches: How Liberals Cheat In The War of Ideas" a few things are bothersome. 

First, let's look at the Table of Malcontents, or my slightly abbreviated version.

1. Ideology

2. Pragmatism

3. No Labels

4. Dogma

5. Separation of Church And State

6. Power Corrupts

7. Diversity

8. Social Darwinism

9. Slippery Slope

10, Dissent

11. Social Justice

12. Community

13. Ten Guilty Men

14. Living Constitution

15. Let Them Eat Cake

16. Violence Never Solves Anything

17. Middle Class

18. Science

19. Youth

20. Ounce Of Prevention

21. The Catholic Church

22. Spiritual But Not Religious

23. Understanding

24. Democracy And Unity

In addition to these nuggets, Goldberg gives us "I disagree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it." This is not so much an invalid cliche as it is an always insincere statement. It seems to forever be delivered by someone unwilling to sacrifice much of anything for anyone, much less sacrifice their mortality for a rival. They are willing to offer up their earthly existence but would they be willing to pay $100 to defend their enemy's speech? $10? $5? 50 cents? 

Goldberg dismantles with good humor the yo-yo's who make this proclamation.

It took me a long time to warm up to Jonah Goldberg. Sorry to say that his flamboyant mother clouded my opinion of her son for a long time. Goldberg is witty in a common sense, P. J. O'Rourke kind of way. This is an entertaining, sometimes laugh out loud book. It is also scholarly at times. Goldberg even works in a "Starship Troopers" reference, an always-endearing maneuver in the eyes of this blogger. 

The origins and evolution of the term 'Social Darwinism' are interesting. It seems that no one has ever been for Social Darwinism. It is always a disapproving label applied by Evolutionists who are satisfied enough with Darwinism to explain everything else.

Goldberg traces the origin of the phrase, "Better that ten guilty men go free..." and applies mathematics to the problem. In dollar terms it is probably not better that ten guilty men go free if such choices have to be made. 

Minor criticisms: Goldberg seems to run out of cliches at some point and to maintain a book length product he dissects statements about youth and invalid criticisms of the Catholic Church. Still, his observations are valid and long overdue. 

Larger Criticism: The subtitle "...How Liberals Cheat In The War Of Ideas" The title suggests that these are exclusively liberal clichés. To be sure, Lefties have made their contribution to Emptyspeak. Vapid terms like 'Social Justice' are parroted exclusively by Occupy types. Terms like 'Community' and 'Understanding' and 'Diversity' also have some partisan affiliation. But Conservatives talk about the slippery slope in regards to gay marriage or assisted suicide. Who doesn't use "Ounce of Prevention" and who doesn't lapse into an occasional "Hindsight is Twenty-Twenty"?

When Peter Schweizer drops a bombshell on the Clinton Foundation, CNN et al painstakingly alert the audience that Schweizer is a conservative reporter who might bring some bias to the discussion. Bernard Goldberg called attention to the broadcast convention of identifying conservative representatives and pundits as CONSERVATIVE but assigning no particular label to non-conservatives.

While this sort of subtle bias is frustrating, we have to ask ourselves if Conservatives don't paint themselves into a corner. When Goldberg dissects more or less universal clichés and blames their usage on Liberals, the line is drawn in the sand. Can we later complain if Goldberg is dismissed as a Conservative writer?

Don't let my nitpicking ruin your fun. "The Tyranny of Clichés: How Liberals Cheat in the War of Ideas" is both entertaining and enlightening. If this was Amazon, I would give it four stars.


 

They Don't Make Democrats Like They Used To: Viva Philip Berg

Usual disclaimers. I believe Barry Obama Soetoro was born in Hawaii and that he is the father of Birtherism. A young man who then called himself Barack submitted a phony biography to the literary agency, Acton and Dystell in 1991.

Philip Berg is one of the few Birthers who raises the Indonesian citizenship issue. That is much more significant than Obama's birthplace.


SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER

Reposting Bob Schieffer/Howard Kurtz Snippet

Strange how certain people with certain viewpoints are often "disappeared" from the Banana Republic of Youtube.  A different version of this video was posted at this blog on June 2, 2015.

CAN'T SAY WE MISS YOU

So, The President Did Not Light Up The White House In Red, White And Blue On Independence Day?

If the president did light up the White House, my desultory web search did not reveal that display of patriotism and pride. After President Jarrett lit up the White House in rainbow colors to spike the football in America's end zone a week ago, a petition was circulated to illuminate the White House in the nation's colors on July 4th.

Didn't happen? Must have been the holiday. With so many staffers getting the day off, I bet Barry had to take the trash to the curb too.


JUST A WEEK AGO